Nonprofits

Donor Management for Nonprofits

Year-end appeal goes out December 1. Segment donors by last gift date, send the appeal with merge tags, log each gift with the thank-you date as the letters go out, and pull the board report from the same records in January.

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FundraiserMax Contacts list with All, Active, Inactive, Archived, and Deceased tabs, a search box, and an Export Excel button

The Contacts screen in FundraiserMax. Real product, not a mockup.

How a development office would run year-end

Hypothetical scenarios. No customer is described.

Development director, October 15, planning the year-end appeal

Last year's donors who haven't given since need an appeal in their inbox on December 1, and the board wants a goal it can watch.

  1. Lists > Create List > Smart List with the rules last gift date between January 1 and December 31 of last year AND total given at or above an amount.
  2. Communication > Email > Templates > write the appeal in the block designer with a merge tag for first name.
  3. Campaigns > New Campaign with the fundraising goal and the year-end date range.
  4. Communication > Email > Campaigns > new email campaign, pick the template and the smart list, and send it on December 1.

On screenRecipients, sent, opened, and clicked on the email campaign row, and goal progress on the year-end campaign under Campaigns.

Gift processor, the week after the appeal lands

Checks and online gifts are arriving faster than the thank-you letters go out, and the auditor will ask in the spring which gifts were acknowledged and when.

  1. Financials > Search Records > donation status and the date range since December 1.
  2. Open each gift and set Thank You Sent with the date the letter went in the mail; set Receipt Sent the same way for gifts of $250 and up.
  3. A donated auction item goes in as an in-kind gift with a description and fair market value.
  4. Financials > Batches > new batch for the deposit, with each check in it.

On screenThe Thank You filter set to No Thank You returns nothing once the letters are out, and the batch total matches the deposit slip.

Major gifts officer, a portfolio visit on a Thursday

A donor who gave every year until two years ago agreed to coffee. The visit needs the record in front of it and a pledge entered before the day is over.

  1. Contacts > the record: total given, average gift, last gift date, calls and meetings, and the notes from the last visit.
  2. Calls & Meetings > New Call/Meeting after the visit, with the outcome and a follow-up date.
  3. On the contact, add a pledge with the amount, the frequency (one-time, monthly, quarterly, or annual), and the due date.
  4. When the first payment arrives, log it against the pledge under Financials.

On screenThe pledge on the record with its status and the balance still to collect, and the follow-up date on the Calls & Meetings list.

Executive director, board meeting the third week of January

The packet needs the year's giving by campaign and the top donors, and the chair wants a spreadsheet, not a screenshot.

  1. Dashboard for the campaign and event summaries.
  2. Financials > Search Records > date range for the year > Export Report to PDF.
  3. Contacts > Export Excel for the donor list sorted by total given, or ask the AI assistant for the top donors.

On screenA PDF for the board packet and an Excel file for the chair, both from the records the gift processor kept during the year.

The screens a development office lives in

Donation Management

Last year's gift spreadsheet imports against a campaign (donations, batches, pledges, and thank-yous all need one), and from then on each gift carries thank-you-sent and receipt-sent dates, an in-kind description with fair market value, and a batch number.

FundraiserMax Data Import screen, step 1 of 3 (Upload File, Map Columns, Review & Import), with a campaign selector and CSV, XLS, or XLSX upload
The Data Import screen, where last year's spreadsheet comes in.

Contact Management

One record per donor with total given, average gift, last gift date, calls, meetings, notes, tags, spouse and household links, and a merge log you can reverse.

Email Marketing

Appeals and drip sequences from a block designer with merge tags; 100 marketing sends per account per month are included, then $2 per 1,000.

Smart Segmentation

Lapsed and first-time donors as smart lists over last gift date, gift count, and total given with AND/OR rules, and a tag for the monthly givers.

Event Management

A gala RSVP page with one ticket price, a capacity cap, VIP flags, check-in at the door, and the gifts and pledges made that night logged on the event.

FundraiserMax Events screen with a Create Event button, before any event exists
The Events screen, where the gala starts.

Analytics & Reports

Dashboard summaries by campaign and event, a Financials report exported to PDF or Excel for the board, and an Excel export of any contact list.

Rules that shape the work

Acknowledgment rules come from the Internal Revenue Code. Counsel or your auditor decides how they apply; here's what the product records.

IRC 170(f)(8): a donor claiming a deduction for a single gift of $250 or more needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from you.
In the productEach gift carries receipt-sent and thank-you-sent flags with the date you sent them. Financials filters on Thank You Sent and No Thank You, so the gifts still waiting on a letter are one search.
Not in the productFundraiserMax doesn't write or send the acknowledgment. You send it on your letterhead or from your own email and record the date.
IRC 6115: when a donor pays more than $75 and gets goods or services back (a gala seat, a dinner), the disclosure has to give a good-faith estimate of what those were worth.
In the productThe ticket price sits on the event, event gifts and pledges are logged against it, and in-kind gifts carry a description and fair market value.
Not in the productThere's no quid pro quo math on a receipt. You compute the deductible portion and write it into your own acknowledgment.
Form 990 Schedule B asks a 501(c)(3) for the name and address of anyone who gave $5,000 or more in the year (a percentage threshold applies to some filers). The IRS keeps those names out of the public copy; donors who ask to stay anonymous in your own publications expect the same from you.
In the productA Financials export filtered to the year lists every gift with its donor, Target lists total given per donor, an anonymous flag on the gift records who asked not to be named, and roles and per-campaign permissions decide who opens Financials at all.
Not in the productIt doesn't prepare Form 990 or Schedule B.

What isn't here

  • No online donation form or donor portal; gifts come in through import, WinRed, Anedot, ActBlue, the API, or by hand.
  • No automated receipts or thank-you emails; the flags and dates record what you sent.
  • No grant tracking or program budgets; this is the donor file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is FundraiserMax a nonprofit CRM or a campaign tool?

Both, on the same plan. The donor record, gifts, pledges, lists, email, events, and call logs are the same screens whether the account belongs to a 501(c)(3) or a candidate. A development office leans on the thank-you and receipt dates and the in-kind fields; a campaign leans on employer and occupation. Nothing is gated by organization type.

Does it send tax receipts or thank-you letters?

No. You write the acknowledgment and send it on your letterhead or from your own email. What the product keeps is a receipt-sent flag and a thank-you-sent flag on each gift, each with a date, and a Thank You filter under Financials that returns the gifts still waiting on one. When the auditor asks which December gifts were acknowledged and when, those dates are the answer.

How are pledges tracked?

A pledge has an amount, a frequency (one-time, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual), a due date, and a status that moves from pending through partially fulfilled to fulfilled, or to cancelled or expired. Each payment is a gift logged against the pledge, so the balance on the record is what's left to collect. A pledge made at an event is logged on the event too.

What does it cost for a small development office?

$40 per user per month, or $425 per user per year, with unlimited contacts and no feature tiers. A development director, a gift processor, and an executive director are three seats. Add-ons are phone numbers at $10 per number per month with no per-minute or per-message charges, marketing email past 100 sends per account per month at $2 per 1,000, and email validation at $0.01 per address. The 7-day trial can import contacts, build segments, set up campaigns and events, and log calls; marketing email, phone numbers, and validation start with the paid plan on day 8.

Can I send appeals from our own email address?

Yes. Settings has a Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, or Custom SMTP option, and appeals go out through whichever you connect; or use the built-in sending with domain authentication under Communication > Email. Unsubscribes are honored on every send either way, and the first 100 marketing sends per account per month are included.

Other organizations

Every gift, pledge, and thank-you date on one record.

Import the spreadsheet, segment by last gift, send the appeal, and pull the board report from the same file.$40 per user per month, 7-day free trial, no charge until day 8.

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